IT may take a bit of doing but The Only Way is Essex favourite Lydia-Rose Bright is on a mission.

The 23-year-old fashionista wants to change our view of an Essex girl. The stereotype is of girls who love fake tan, are a bit dim and love a white high heel – just think Stacey Solomon or Chantelle Houghton. But Lydia has bucked the trend. She loves classic vintage style and her icons are 50s stars like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

She has had four fashion collections snapped up by the likes of Asos, Lipsy and River Island, she has the Bella Sorella Boutique in Loughton, Essex, which has just gone online around the world and she has just launched an accessories line with Vintage Styler.

She said: “I hope I can change people’s perceptions of an Essex girl. I think a lot of people stereotype us.

“There is always that big thing that we are stupid and we are ditzy. But we are far from it. TOWIE has shown Essex girls are entrepreneurial and business-minded.

“Every single one of us from the show has set up our own business.

“A lot of the girls are glamorous and like putting on their heels and tottering around but I don’t think that makes them stupid.

“People put us in a category that we are all air heads. We’ve proved we aren’t and we are very intelligent girls.”

She puts this down to something that affects young girls right across the country – a lack of confidence that leads them to wear the same kind of things.

Not that Lydia did.

She said: “Growing up, the other girls would follow girl bands but I’d go on about Marilyn Monroe.

“I didn’t. A lot of the girls used to love my fashion. It’s all about confidence. A lot of young girls dress similarly and copy the trends because they haven’t got the confidence to go out there and try their own things.

“As a teenager, it’s a bit nerve-wracking to dress differently. The girls used to love my fashion but say, ‘I could never wear that but it looks so lovely on you’.

“I always felt confident enough to dress how I wanted. I never got stick for my outfit choices.”

Lydia’s confidence came from the females in her family. Her nan, mum and aunt were all in the fashion business, with mum Debbie a Debenhams buyer. The youngster also idolised the Carrie Bradshaw character from Sex And The City and wanted to copy her outfits.

She said: “I loved the glamour and glitz of the 50s. As soon as I could go shopping myself and buy my own clothes, I always went for that kind of style.

“On my first episode of TOWIE I wore a vintage green cape, which I’d picked up in a store in Camden.”

Of course, Lydia isn’t the first Essex girl to wow the fashion world. Victoria Beckham is the queen and Lydia would love to emulate the former Spice Girl’s success.

She said: “We are kind of similar in that fashion wasn’t our background initially. She did music and I did TOWIE.”

But Lydia is already enjoying the same kind of success. Posh’s frocks often got worn by her famous friends, helping to publicise the brand and Lydia is getting the same kind of attention for her clothes.

Denise Van Outen, Danielle Lloyd and even Made in Chelsea’s Ashley James have been happy to wear her clothes.

A real coup would be designing the wedding dress for actress Michelle Keegan, who is marrying former TOWIE star Mark Wright. Lydia is close with the Wright family and is also big pals with Mark’s sister Jess.

Lydia said: “I don’t think Michelle would ask me. I don’t really know her. Mark, I do know but I’ve only met her once and she’ll probably have a massive designer doing her dress.

“But I’d definitely design my own dress if one day I get married. That would be one dress I’d definitely design.”

Lydia isn’t sure if she would even get an invite to the wedding but wished them well.

She added: “They do make a lovely couple. I hope they have an amazing wedding, whether I’m there or not.”

And even if Michelle doesn’t ask her to design the dress, it might be an accessory. Lydia has just launched a 29-piece range with Vintage Styler, including statement necklaces, bracelets, rings, clutch bags and hair bands.

Ex-Towie star Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan (Image: Getty Images)

She said: “Moving into accessories was something I always wanted to do.

“I want to broaden the brand and keep building on it.

“Fashion is a long-term thing and hopefully something I’ll do for the rest of my life.”

However, after a year and five months away from the TV cameras, Lydia is back on TOWIE – the show she joined when she was just 18. At the end of the last series she made a dramatic return in the final episode, which left her ex-boyfriend James “Arg” Argent flustered and his ex-girlfriend Gemma Collins in tears.

The new series starts on June 22 with a Marbella special.

The cast went out to the holiday destination this week and Lydia is loving being back, although it means she’ll miss being with her dad tomorrow for Father’s Day.

She said: “Unfortunately, this Father’s Day I will be filming and sunning it up in Marbella but on my return I will be sure to follow my Father’s Day tradition.

“I take my dad, who is known as Dave the Tiler, to the local curry house for a vindaloo, followed by a pint in our local pub.

“He isn’t one for fine dining and fancies.”

Lydia left the show in December 2012 because she said she felt unhappy and uncomfortable filming with ex-boyfriend Arg, as she had a new boyfriend in Tom Kilbey.

But after backpacking with sister Georgia across Thailand and Malaysia and doing so well with her shop and fashion line, she decided that since she’d split with Tom, she was ready to enjoy herself again.

She was massively nervous before her big return – she arrived at a party dressed as a princess, saying, “I’m back”.

Everyone made her feel at home and she felt as if she’d never been away.

Lydia laughed: “It’s like riding a bike, as soon as you’ve been on TOWIE you can go back to it and it will be normal again.”

Going to Marbella was a circle of sorts. After school, she worked in a bar in Marbella before being asked to join TOWIE.

She said: “I’ve got a lot of friends and family there. I love it.

“I don’t speak Spanish though. I don’t think I met one Spanish person when I worked there. I can speak Italian, though, because my family is Italian and Irish.”

So what about Arg? Lydia dated Tom after she and Arg split and when she was backpacking as a single girl again she met and spent the rest of her holiday with a guy called Ian, who lives in Australia.

An angry Lydia confronting ex-boyfriend Arg in an episode of TOWIE (Image: ITV)

Arg has admitted that Lydia is the love of his life and wrote most of his autobiography on their relationship.

He and the show may be looking for a relationship to develop again but Lydia just wants to be friends.

She said: “While we had a lovely romance when we were younger, I feel I’m at that stage where I want us to be able to be friends.

“A lot of hurt has happened in the past. I want us to be in the same room and talk to each other.

“We were together for four years, so that’s what I’m looking forward to – being friends. That’s all that I want.”

She feels for Gemma, who still has feelings for Arg but reckons it’s up to him to have a discussion about it.

Lydia also doesn’t want to talk to or about Amy Childs. Arg cheated on Lydia with the ex-TOWIE star and revealed it in his book, Living It Arg.

Lydia isn’t impressed.

She said: “I don’t have much to say to her, to be honest. I don’t feel I need to have the conversation with her. I don’t need to talk to her about it.”

Although Ms Bright is normally chirpy, it’s the one time the mood dips.

Even her split with former footballer Tom, who joined TOWIE from series four, is dealt with breezily.

She said: “It was a whirlwind romance.

“I moved into his place within a month but we realised we were different.

“I’m really happy being single.

“I’ve got lots of friends and family and don’t have the time to invest in a boyfriend at the moment.

“I’m not saying I would rule out a relationship.

“If someone did come along and whisk me off my feet I wouldn’t say no. But at the moment, I’m happy and enjoying myself.”

* TOWIE is back on Sunday, June 22, ITV2 at 10pm. Lydia-Rose Bright for Vintage Styler is available now, exclusively from www.vintagestyler.co.uk